Long Haul

How long will Russian President Boris Yeltsin hold on?The answers run the gamut. There are those who say he has outlived his usefulness. Others suggest that he's in a tight spot but will succeed.As long as such commentary is confined to unofficial discussions, the implications are minimal. But when the comments are made by a top official of the U.S. government, it's a different story.Richard Armitage, an official from the former Bush administration who, until summarily dismissed this week, coordinated aid to Russia and other former republics, had announced that Mr. Yeltsin's days are numbered.

Alan Mason is the new corporate vice president of local programming for Bright House Networks. He oversees News 13 (Central Florida) and Bay News 9 (Tampa) in addition to Bright House Sports Network, InfoMas and Local On Demand programming. He joined Bright House from News 14 Carolina. He talked with staff writer Hal Boedeker recently. How committed is Bright House to News 13? I wouldn't be here if I didn't think Bright House was strongly committed to News 13, Bay News 9 and Bright House Sports Network.

An era has ended. Because I didn't need it as much as I did before, I sold my van -- the van that hauled me more than 100,000 miles back when I was on the road more than a Bible salesman.The van had those two big chairs up front, then two in the middle. Behind them was a sofa-type piece that folded into a bed.Big Phil drove, and on overnighters I took the bed. When I was a kid, I use to ride buses to visit my father. The drone of the engine always put me to sleep. The sound of the van's engine and the humming of its tires on interstate did the same despite the fat I am a major-league insomniac.

" Side Effects of You " is the fourth studio album for Fantasia since the singer launched her career as the winner of the third season of American Idol in 2004. Yet the release also marks an important "first" for the singer, who will perform tonight as part of the slate of musical acts at this weekend's Tom Joyner Family Reunion entertainment and lifestyle event at Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee . "This album is completely different, in that it's my baby, my vision," Fantasia, 29, says in a phone interview from her home in Charlotte , N.C. "I've been in the game for 10 years now and I look at everything in such a different way. " All of her previous releases - the platinum-selling 2004 debut, " Free Yourself ," and the well-received " Fantasia " (2006)

Along with a few others in our century -- Schweitzer, Einstein come to mind -- Yehudi Menuhin has lived the sort of life that causes ordinary men and women to place a higher value on their own humanity, on humanity itself.Menuhin's spell over the world was cast, for all practical purposes, on a single day.It was Nov. 25, 1927, that 11-year-old Menuhin walked out onto the Carnegie Hall stage to play the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the New York Symphony Orchestra.When it was over, members of the audience, many with tears in their eyes, rushed down to the stage, shouting and cheering.

I have been married almost 10 years to the same person. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe. Neither of us was sure that any human being could be expected to live over the long haul with anyone as stubborn, opinionated and difficult as the other. Somehow it has worked, and it is not a gross exaggeration to say that this is partly because I am a much better cook than he is, and he tells much better jokes than I do.A lot of people don't understand how important these little things are to a marriage.

First-round draft pick Paul Gruber may not be wearing the orange jersey of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers anytime soon, according to his agent Ralph Cindrich of Pittsburgh.Cindrich said that he and Gruber, an offensive tackle from Wisconsin, are ''setting in for the long haul'' in the stalled negotiations with the Bucs.''I didn't think it was going to be prolonged, but I'm starting to believe there is cause for concern,'' Cindrich said. ''It is becoming obvious to Paul and myself that this is not going to be settled quickly.

Bags containing ticking devices are not recommended to carry with you to the airport. I should've known better. Actually, I did know better. So believe me, I did not intentionally set out to trigger confusion or tumult when motoring from my home to Orlando International. Listen, such antics were far, far from my mind only hours before as I stood at the bathroom mirror cropping my mustache and contemplating the upcoming flight to visit relatives in a land of frigid winters. Anyway, the smilingly proficient skycap at the curbside baggage checkpoint frisked my carry-on satchel and declared, "There's something ticking or running in here," and smilingly prodded me to get to the bottom of it before facing the no-nonsense security crew inside the building.

A lot of people have noticed that the two teams playing in the World Series have one very important thing in common. They both lost a lot of games this year. Oh, sure, there's the whole New York-New York thing going on. However, both the Yankees and Mets combined to lose about 150 games this year and spent most of the month of September on losing streaks that would have taken lesser teams right out of the playoff race. Of course, if you picked 24 of your friends and created a baseball team, you'd have enough ability to lose 150 games and to go a month without picking up two wins in a row. Likewise, if you are an investor looking at funds that have had plenty of losing days this year, you might be thinking how you could do just as well by moving your money, picking a different team, or doing all the investing on your own. But just as your homegrown baseball team would lack the ability to win the 180 combined games needed to be on the brink of a championship, so might you be abandoning long-term winners based on short-term losing streaks.

A redeveloped Naval Training Center will become profitable for Orlando, but not for the first nine years and not until millions of tax dollars have been spent.Development and maintenance costs will outpace revenues until 2004, according to projections released Thursday.But the city will net $26 million from land sales and taxes by 2015.''Over the long haul, it's going to be a moneymaker,'' said Herb Smetheram, executive director of the Base Re-use Commission that is planning the redevelopment.

Alex Zaldivar was remembered for his bravery — and his distinctive laugh — during a gathering of his friends, family and community members near Ocoee City Hall on Sunday night. Zaldivar, 19, died after a gunshot wound to the back of his head in his Ocoee home by intruders in the early morning hours of Sept. 10. His housemate Brienna Campos and her brother, Remington Campos, also were shot but survived. Their Bernandino Drive home also was invaded in May. Zaldivar and Brienna Campos were expected to testify in a trial for that case.

As the Kings ' summer of Stanley quickly morphs into the NHL 's season of labor discontent, now is a good time to look back on the most far-flung travel the Stanley Cup made following the team's diaspora from L.A. in June. Defenseman Slava Voynov was the first Kings player to take the Cup to his hometown -- a long haul of 6,200 miles to Chelyabinsk, Russia, in July. It was the first time the Cup had ever visited the central Russian city of over a million people, some of whom were kind enough to greet Voynov in Pittsburgh Penguins jerseys (must be Evgeni Malkin territory)

Building an electric car is one thing. But move too fast in developing a heavy-duty electric cargo truck and bad things happen, according to the head of Southern California company that is trying to succeed where others have failed before. In the past, electric trucks ran out of juice less than halfway through an eight-hour shift at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. Parts of some of the trucks melted or caught fire. Some electric trucks were sent out on the road too soon, with too little power and too little endurance.

Going into his ninth season with the Bears, lean and healthy Lovie Smith sure appears to have staying power. If he wins this season — which he should — Smith is likely to last at least as long as Mike Ditka as head coach of the Bears. Smith is positioned to earn a contract extension after this season that would virtually guarantee he will remain coach of the Bears through the 2014 season. That would give him 11 seasons in Chicago, tying him with the legendary Ditka as the second-longest tenured coach of the Bears behind Papa Bear himself, the incomparable George Halas . When Ditka was going into his ninth season in 1990, he was two years removed from a heart attack and aging like a president.

With the long-hauling of unsuspecting taxi customers still running rampant, enforcement officers with the Nevada Taxicab Authority have begun new tactics to stop the illegal practice. Ruben Aquino, chief investigator for the state agency that regulates Clark County's 16 cab companies, said there would be random enforcement checkpoints and undercover stings to discourage cabdrivers from taking their passengers on long routes that result in higher fares. Most local long-hauling incidents involve trips from McCarran International Airport to resorts on the Las Vegas Strip via the tunnel beneath the airport's east-west runways, which can increase a fare by $10-$20.

Here comes another unpopular admission: There came a point, sometime in the aftermath of Princess Diana 's funeral in 1997, when I became tired of Elton John , who performs on Saturday at the Amway Center . " Candle in the Wind ," a song that I had once loved as part of the epic " Goodbye Yellow Brick Road " album, had been transformed into a Diana tribute, bidding " Goodbye England's Rose . " It became the...